Advanced Search 
Helmet Mask
Elema
19th century
Object Place: Papuan Gulf, Papua New Guinea
Medium/Technique
Bark-cloth, bamboo, raffia, reed, pigments
Dimensions
78.74 cm (31 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of William E. and Bertha L. Teel
Accession Number1996.400
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAfrica and Oceania
ClassificationsMasks
ProvenanceBetween 1889 and 1891, acquired in Papua New Guinea by Edwin Bentley Savage (b. 1853 or 1854 - d. 1921), Hampshire, England [see note 1]; October 20, 1894, sold by Savage to Lt.-General Augustus Henry Pitt-Rivers (b. 1827 - d. 1900), Farnham, England; transferred to the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Farnham (Room 7, case 65); 1966, Pitt-Rivers Museum closed and collection passed by descent to Stella Howson-Clive (Pitt-Rivers), Dorset [see note 2]. 1990, acquired in Paris by Kevin Conru (dealer), London [see note 3]; March, 1994, sold by Kevin Conru to William and Bertha Teel, Marblehead, MA; 1996, partial gift of William and Bertha Teel to the MFA; 2014, acquired fully with the bequest of William Teel to the MFA. (Accession Dates: December 18, 1996 and February 26, 2014)
NOTES:
[1] Edwin Bentley Savage was a missionary with the London Missionary Society, arriving in Papua New Guinea in 1889 and returning to England in 1891. It is not known exactly when or how he obtained this mask. After being used, masks of this type were discarded, thrown on a large pile to be burned. This mask, however, does not show signs of wear. See Christraud M. Geary, ed., From the South Seas: Oceanic Art in the Teel Collection (Boston: MFA, 2006), 25-27.
[2] Augustus Pitt-Rivers established a privately-owned museum in Dorset in 1880, where he housed acquisitions he made between 1880 and 1900. He kept several notebooks recording the collection, now held by Cambridge University. The collection passed by descent through Augustus Henry Pitt-Rivers’s son, Alexander Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers, to his grandson, Captain George Pitt-Rivers (1890-1966) and his common law wife, Stella Howson-Clive (Pitt-Rivers). The museum closed in 1966 and portions of the collection were sold.
[3] Erroneously said by Conru to have been "found in Bremen, Germany, circa 1910."
NOTES:
[1] Edwin Bentley Savage was a missionary with the London Missionary Society, arriving in Papua New Guinea in 1889 and returning to England in 1891. It is not known exactly when or how he obtained this mask. After being used, masks of this type were discarded, thrown on a large pile to be burned. This mask, however, does not show signs of wear. See Christraud M. Geary, ed., From the South Seas: Oceanic Art in the Teel Collection (Boston: MFA, 2006), 25-27.
[2] Augustus Pitt-Rivers established a privately-owned museum in Dorset in 1880, where he housed acquisitions he made between 1880 and 1900. He kept several notebooks recording the collection, now held by Cambridge University. The collection passed by descent through Augustus Henry Pitt-Rivers’s son, Alexander Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers, to his grandson, Captain George Pitt-Rivers (1890-1966) and his common law wife, Stella Howson-Clive (Pitt-Rivers). The museum closed in 1966 and portions of the collection were sold.
[3] Erroneously said by Conru to have been "found in Bremen, Germany, circa 1910."